Thunderbolt
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Does Thunderbolt fortell the end of the line for the Mac Pro as we know it?
Xsan integrator Meta Media has an interesting series of posts on its Empowering Creativity blog about what it sees as the future -- or rather the lack of a future -- for Apple's Mac Pro line. The arrival of the Thunderbolt interface, Meta Media says, will allow Apple to return to its beloved sealed-box model of computer production with no user-serviceable parts inside, just like the original Macintosh. No expansion cards, no hard disk upgrades, just Thunderbolt (aka Light Peak) interfaces to connect ... well, to connect anything you like really. "The new Mac Pro will probably look something akin to the current Mac Mini, except slightly taller, more powerful, and with Thunderbolt ports," the thinking goes. "In fact, all of us need to grapple with the prospect of a Mac product line without any capability of expansion beyond USB, Firewire and Thunderbolt." The latest MacBook Pros were the first to sport Thunderbolt connectors, and Meta Media argues that the rest of the Mac lineup will follow. The post points to the arrival of devices such as Promise's SANLink Thunderbolt to dual-port, 4 Gigabit Fiber Channel adapter as heralding this change; the post forecasts that this is just the start. "This means that at any time now, Apple can pull the plug on the current Mac Pro and not shock an entire industry. Add to that the near-production offerings of Thunderbolt-driven capture devices from AJA, Blackmagic Design, Matrox and MOTU, and we have our new-age video workstation clearly in sight," Meta Media says. You'll find the blog posts here, here, here and here -- have a read and let us know what you think. Would you be sad to see the Mac Pro range disappear into a giant Mac mini case? Will you be happy just plugging everything into Thunderbolt ports? Let us know in the comments.
iMac supplies constrained, indicating possible refresh soon
If supplies of certain iMac models are any indication, a refresh of Apple's all-in-one iMac may be in the works. This would be the first update of the iMac line since July 27, 2010, when the Intel Core i3 / i5 / i7 machines first became available. 9to5 Mac is reporting that supplies of the desktop machine are constrained worldwide at this time. An anonymous tipster provided the blog with the screenshot seen at the top of this post, showing four standard versions of the iMac in constrained status with "no ETA" for new shipments. Not only are iMac shipments constrained, but even replacement parts are currently in short supply. Graphics processors and hard drives are particularly hard to get in the US. As we reported at the end of March, any upcoming iMac refresh would most likely migrate the platform to Intel's powerful Sandy Bridge processors, as well as the speedy Thunderbolt I/O standard that debuted in the recent MacBook Pro refresh. At that point, we speculated that the refresh would come in late April or early May, and that time frame looks more valid every day. If you're considering the purchase of a new iMac, you may want to put off that purchase for a month or so to benefit from any refresh of the line.
Intel announces USB 3.0 in "Ivy Bridge" and will support Thunderbolt
"Intel is going to support USB 3.0 in the 2012 client platform. We're going to support Thunderbolt capability. We believe that they're complementary." CNET reported this remark from Kirk Sakaugen, a VP of the Intel Architecture group, in a presentation streamed from the Intel Developer Conference in Beijing. This dual-I/O support will arrive in the first half of 2012 with the rollout of the "Ivy Bridge" processor, which will be the next generation after the "Sandy Bridge" technology currently built into the the newest MacBook Pros. This is the first time in ten years that Intel has built the most current USB technology into its processors. Currently Intel uses USB 3.0 in a small number of high-end motherboards, sourcing a component from NEC to make it work. USB 3.0 is ten times quicker than USB 2.0, topping out at a theoretical speed of 4.8 Gbps. Thunderbolt, in turn, beats out USB 3.0 easily; it allows transfers of data and DisplayPort video simultaneously at speeds of up to 10 Gbps on one cable. Although nothing specific has been said about when Intel will integrate Thunderbolt technology, The Inquirer notes that the January launch of "Sandy Bridge" would have been the perfect time for Intel to build USB 3.0 into its silicon. By dragging its heels, the company may be promoting the integration of Thunderbolt. Currently Apple is the only computer maker using Thunderbolt, but AMD as well as Intel have said they will eventually include Thunderbolt support.
Intel distributing Thunderbolt developer kits this quarter, more peripherals on the way
According to IDG News, Intel announced yesterday that Thunderbolt developer kits would be making their way out to manufacturers within this quarter, opening up development for the fledgling standard. The technology, previously known by its code name 'Light Peak,' began shipping on the 2011 MacBook Pro line, replacing the mini DisplayPort socket of the previous iteration. The fully backwards compatible specification, which was announced on the 24th of February this year, encompasses both DisplayPort and PCI Express in a dual-channel, high-speed interconnect. Promising speeds of up to 10 Gbps along copper cables, there's a lot of potential for products that require high-speed connections but a minimum amount of cables. Companies including Canon, Matrox, AJA, LaCie and Western Digital have shown off products already, but none have made it to market as yet. Intel is hoping that by distributing developer kits, it can get a plethora of Thunderbolt-connected products hitting the shelves quickly, not just external hard drives, which is great news for MacBook Pro users. The holy grail of the one connector to rule them all may be a little ways off just yet, but with a bit of luck, we'll start to see some decent uses for Thunderbolt, short of the standard DisplayPort connection, in the very near future.
Intel Thunderbolt dev kits coming this quarter, hopefully ushering in more 10Gbps-capable devices
Intel has just announced it will soon be making development kits available for its new Thunderbolt interconnect. The cable that can carry 10Gbps (in both directions!) has so far only seen itself installed in Apple's MacBook Pro computers, but storage and other peripheral manufacturers are starting to unveil their lightning-scorched offerings this week at NAB and this announcement is sure to give Thunderbolt an extra spur of momentum. What's going to be intriguing going forward is to see whether manufacturers take it up instead of USB 3.0 or install the DisplayPort lookalike alongside the latest and greatest from the USB camp. If you ask us, we can never have enough high-speed interconnects... how does SuperSpeed Thunderbolt sound?
G-Technology crashes NAB with portable, Thunderbolt-equipped RAID arrays
The Thunderbolt goodness just keeps on rolling out at NAB. G-Technology just announced it will be adding support for the high-speed connection to its line of RAID devices for those who spend their days chopping up HD video. The first batch of products will hit in either Q3 or Q4 and start with the company's smaller arrays in the four to eight-disc size. A prototype of a four-drive model can be seen in the photo above, which rep Pete Schlatter described to us as "the sweet spot" in terms of portability and storage. Sure, calling an eight drive array "portable" sounds like a stretch, but don't forget: these are designed to be paired with laptops and carried by people editing video on the go -- you know, guys with giant cases of equipment and biceps to match.
Matrox strikes at NAB, first to market with Thunderbolt products
Word out of NAB is that Matrox, known best for enabling day-traders to run an excessive number of monitors off a single graphics card, will be the first company to market with peripherals designed to use Thunderbolt. All the latest models of its MXO2 family of video I/O boxes will be shipping with Thunderbolt on board, while budding film makers using the current gen MXO2 devices will be able to push 10Gb worth of pixels per second by picking up an adapter. Matrox didn't announce a firm release date or price, though we expect it will fall in line with the current products, which range from $449 up to almost $2,400 for the MXO2 Rack with Matrox Max. They're not exactly must have accessories for the average user, but if you simply can't wait any longer to put those Thunderbolt ports to use, it's the only game in town.
Skype with video calling leaks for HTC Thunderbolt, celebrations unsurprisingly erupt (update)
Verizon may have left it out from the get-go, but it looks as if eager HTC Thunderbolt owners needn't wait another day to test out a video-enabled version of Skype. For those outside of The Loop, there was quite the back-and-forth going during the early days, with Verizon announcing at the 11th hour that its flagship LTE phone would be shipped sans Skype. It's still unavailable in the bona fide Android Market, but a build has appeared from the ether and seems to be humming along just fine here at Engadget HQ. Hit the source link if you're feeling froggy, and let us know in comments how things work out. [Thanks to everyone who sent this in] Update: So we just happened to have a Thunderbolt on hand, and gave Skype's mobile video chat a try. We came away quite impressed -- video is as good as can be expected from the handset's 1.3 megapixel front-facing camera, and the experience on WiFi and LTE is virtually indistinguishable. The app even worked on 3G, though that reduced the picture quality to the point of being almost unusable. Michael Gorman contributed to this report.
HTC Thunderbolt gets an FCC-approved teardown
We've already seen the HTC Thunderbolt hit the FCC, but it's just now getting to the good stuff now that the phone has actually been released. While it's not exactly to iFixit levels of detail, the agency has now provided us with a reasonably good teardown of the device, which lets you see just what makes this speed demon of a phone tick. Hit up the link below for a few more pictures where this one came from.
Thunderbolt peripherals announced at NAB this week
Sure, you've got a shiny new MacBook Pro with that top-of-the-line Thunderbolt interface, but odds are that you don't have anything besides a DisplayPort adapter to plug it into yet! Worry not -- the National Association of Broadcasters is meeting in Las Vegas this week, and a few companies there are announcing new products designed to work with the Thunderbolt interface. Matrox and AJA are announcing breakout boxes to hook up current products to the Thunderbolt port, while Blackmagic Design has a box called UltraStudio 3D designed to transfer high-quality 3D video (that's two different streams in full resolution), and PROMISE is showing off both SAN/FibreChannel adapter boxes and the previously announced RAID hard drive solutions. Not so coincidentally, we were just talking about the likelihood of new Thunderbolt gear on last night's Talkcast. Before you get too excited, know that most of these product announcements are just that -- the actual products probably won't be out later this year, and most of these products are for high-end audio or video editing rather than anything your average consumer would need. But the key here is that we are seeing some adoption of this new standard at the highest levels, and that's good news for anyone who owns an Apple computer, since Apple has already decided that Thunderbolt is the new interface of choice. Bottom line: That new port on your MacBook Pro has more uses every day. [via MacRumors]
Apple granted patent for DisplayPort/Thunderbolt, USB 3.0 dock connector
Apple has been granted a patent for a new type of dock connector, discovered by PatentlyApple. The new dock connector is a "hybrid DisplayPort/USB 3.0 high speed connector." According to the patent-tracking site, "This new and extremely slim connector will work on all iOS devices like the iPod and eventually work its way through Apple's entire hardware lineup." While Apple typically files patents for technologies that never see the light of day, PatentlyApple speculates that this new dock connector could be unveiled later this year or in 2012 when Apple adds USB 3.0 ports to its Mac computers. The patent also suggests that future iOS devices may have Thunderbolt connections since a DisplayPort and Thunderbolt connection are physically similar. Apple added Thunderbolt to the latest MacBook Pros, and it's widely expected that all Macs introduced from now on will sport the new port. A combined Thunderbolt/USB 3.0 connector would cover the Mac and PC spectrum -- while all newer Macs are likely to have Thunderbolt ports, most mid-level to low-end PCs will probably only sport USB 3.0 ports. [via MacRumors]
App gives HTC Thunderbolt an LTE on / off switch
Looking to save a bit of battery life on your Thunderbolt by dialing down those crazy LTE speeds from time to time? Then you now have a relatively easy way to do so courtesy of the new LTE OnOff app that's just hit the Android Market. That's apparently similar to a few other options available, but this one's free, and it will let you switch from LTE to 3G only with just three taps. Sound good? Hit up the link below to download it straight to your Thunderbolt.
HTC's Thunderbolt beset with video capture woes, fix purportedly on the way
Uh oh, sounds like HTC's Thunderbolt has struck yet another stumbling block on its path to glory. Forums dedicated to the superphone are now rife with frustration of inconsistent audio capture when using its bundled video recorder, and apparently, the rally cry was vociferous enough to warrant a response from HTC itself. Users of first-gen technology are likely familiar with the line, but word is it's aware of the issue and working to release a software update to remedy the nasties. In the meantime, if uploading your macaw's cover of 'Friday' is a priority for you, don't go to crankytown just yet -- we hear there's a whole world of third-party cappers to explore.
Rumor: New iMacs on tap for April or May
A couple of tweets from CNET's Brian Tong are fueling speculation that a new batch of iMacs are on their way to the US, with an expected debut in late April or early May. In a tweet a little over a week ago, Tong noted "New iMacs en route by ocean to U.S. available end of April or 1st week of May. No major cosmetic changes." That tweet was followed by another today that reiterated the time frame for new iMac models. Over at MacNews, Dennis Sellers made some predictions that are quite reasonable to believe. He expects the new iMacs to feature dual- or quad-core Sandy Bridge processors. At the low end of the price spectrum would be 21" models running dual-core Intel Core i5 CPUs at 2.3 and 2.7 GHz, while the high end would feature 27" iMacs with quad-core Intel Core i7 CPUs at 2.0 and 2.3 GHz. Sellers speculates that the new iMacs would come equipped with Thunderbolt I/O, an easy guess since the fast new I/O standard has already made a debut on the latest MacBook Pro models. I disagree with Sellers on his estimate of hard disk capacities. He's anticipating 500 GB to 1 TB models. Apple already sells configure-to-order (CTO) models with 2 TB capacities, along with 256 GB SSD boot drives, so I'd expect to see the company start at 1 TB and possibly outfit CTO models with 3 TB of storage. Most drive manufacturers are now selling 3 TB SATA units at reasonable prices, so there's no reason for Apple to at least make them an option for buyers. With storage that spacious, it might make more sense for Apple to squeeze two high-capacity drives into a new iMac for onboard data mirroring. These new iMacs are probably already a done deal if they're indeed on the ships heading for the US. That doesn't mean that TUAW readers can't join in on the speculation. What would you like to see in a new iMac? Leave your comments below.
HTC Thunderbolt 3G data problems solved?
When we first received our HTC Thunderbolt review unit, we -- and others, apparently -- experienced problems with 3G data not always functioning in areas without 4G coverage. Things improved after we performed a factory data reset, but that's pretty inconvenient. Fortunately, some clever folks over at Android Central have come up with an explanation and potential fix for this issue. It looks like some devices are being activated in areas with eHPRD coverage but then used in areas without. eHPRD allows simultaneous voice and data on EV-DO networks, and provides faster LTE switching -- assuming 4G is switched on. Supposedly, this feature is down in some parts of the country, so phones configured to use eHPRD can't initiate a data connection over 3G, but ones provisioned for regular EV-DO are connecting fine. One way to reconfigure the Thunderbolt is to re-activate it on the network, which is one of the side effects of doing a factory data reset. A better way is to invoke the programming menu and re-provision the device manually by following the steps outlined in the source link and illustrated in our gallery below. Sadly, we can't verify this solution because we currently have both eHPRD and LTE coverage in our neck of the woods, but some people are reporting improvements. Let us know in the comments how it works out for you and be careful not to mess with any of the other settings. You have been warned. Update: Dial ##778# and tap the Call button to enter the programming menu. The password for the Edit Mode menu is 000000. Follow the source link for more info. %Gallery-119980%
HTC Thunderbolt test menu exposes missing 4G / 3G switch
As we mentioned in our recent HTC Thunderbolt review, there's no option provided in the settings to switch off 4G (LTE) and force the phone to operate solely on 3G (EV-DO). Obviously this is an issue when conserving battery is more important than reaping the benefits of LTE's ludicrous data speeds. Fortunately, we can thank the good old *#*#4636#*#* test menu for remedying this odd deficiency. This hidden menu, which became popular with the Nexus One and is available on most Android devices, allows you to enable / disable radio modes. On the Thunderbolt it lets you select between LTE+EV-DO, EV-DO only, and LTE only. Now you can have your cake and eat it too -- well almost. Follow the source link for step-by-step instructions.
Is your Thunderbolt having LTE mobile hotspot problems?
We'd been excited to use our HTC Thunderbolts as integral parts of our show setup here at CTIA this week -- only thing is, the mobile hotspot capability is kind of important if we're going to make that happen. On one occasion while reviewing the device last week, we noticed that the phone's radio was cycling between LTE and CDMA-only coverage, dropping the data connection to the tethered devices altogether each and every time, effectively rendering the hotspot capability useless -- thing is, we only saw it happen once. Well, this week at the show, we've got two Thunderbolts on hand and they're both exhibiting exactly the same behavior... and they're doing it consistently, which sadly means there'll be no LTE for us at this week's festivities. A quick check of Verizon's official support forums confirms that other users are seeing the same behavior, so it seems to be a real problem; we'll let you know when we hear more. In the meantime, follow the break for a video demo of the issue.
Apple releases OS X 10.6.7 with fix for MacBook Pro display issues
It may be a minor update for most, but those with a brand new MacBook Pro will no doubt find the just-released OS X 10.6.7 upgrade particularly welcome. In addition to various minor improvements for all Macs, it includes a fix for early 2011 MacBook Pros that promises to "improve graphics stability and external display compatibility." That sounds like it may actually fix both the freezing issue we reported on earlier today and the flickering issue that's been plaguing Thunderbolt-equipped MacBook Pros since day one, though we've yet to confirm either ourselves. Let us know how things work out for you in comments. Update: Early indications are that it does indeed fix both the freezing and flickering issues. We'll let you know if we find anything else. [Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
Verizon and HTC offer Thunderbolt extended battery, give your phone dumps like a truck
Though never confirmed by Verizon, it seems likely that battery life (or more accurately, the lack thereof) played a part in the series of delays preceding the Thunderbolt's launch. To combat this problem, Big Red and HTC are offering a rather unsightly extended battery pack that nearly doubles the handset's capacity from 1400mAh to 2750mAh. All that extra juice will certainly come in handy for folks leaning heavily on the phone's LTE radio. However, the device costs $50 and adds an ounce of junk in the trunk -- on a device that isn't svelte to begin with -- so why not buy another standard battery for ten bucks less instead? Then you can use the Qi-compatible back and induction charging station Verizon's releasing in April -- both are pictured after the break. It's just under $100 ($29 for the back and $69 for the pad) for those who want to cut the cord and don't mind the expanded waistline we assume comes with the privilege.
HTC Thunderbolt rooted for real, locked files nearly soured the deal
They thought it would be easy, but they were wrong -- AndIRC developers reportedly spent the last 72 hours readying the new HTC Thunderbolt for custom ROMs. Today, they emerge victorious, but that victory is bittersweet, because it may signify the end of a generally hacker-friendly era from the folks at HTC. While devices from the Taiwanese manufacturer have traditionally been easy to modify, the hacker community found Verizon's LTE flagship fully locked down, with a signed kernel, signed recovery image and a signed bootloader. FOF. Of course, if you're just looking for a way to overclock your Thunderbolt, you probably don't care about all that. You'll find all the (exceptionally lengthy) instructions you need at Android Police. Just be careful out there! [Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
